


a future, to start

by ewagan



Series: SASO 2017 Fills [14]
Category: Haikyuu!!, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-06
Packaged: 2018-12-11 21:09:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11722605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ewagan/pseuds/ewagan
Summary: A beginning, a strange meeting and an unlikely friendship.





	a future, to start

**Author's Note:**

> [prompt here](https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/24808.html?thread=15330280#cmt15330280) 
> 
> thank you mandy for yet another rarepair i can barely hold them all

A jacket. Found in changing rooms. White with blue accents at the collar and sleeves, black stripe running down the sleeves,  _Rakuzan_ printed on the back in letters, and above the breast in kanji.


A beginning, a strange meeting and an unlikely friendship. Akashi is nothing like he imagines, though they are both of a similar height. Kita thinks he is still carrying secrets and burdens, but he is here to return a jacket, not ask questions. Akashi is unfailingly polite and gracious, and he offers to treat Kita to tea or coffee as a thank you. They wind up in a cafe discussing school, sports, university applications and rankings, and other inconsequential things. 

An email address. Given at the end of their first meeting, over tea and coffee.


The start of many late night conversations and discussion of captaincy woes. Kita appreciates Akashi’s dry humour, though he clearly fails at telling jokes. He’s surprisingly astute, even over text. Kita glosses over much of their matches and the choice of captain, though it’s almost certain to be Osamu instead of Atsumu. Akashi offers him an ear and surprising insights, and Kita wonders where did he learn to read people so well from so little.

A novel. Exchanged for one of his own, a discussion on books and writers.


Akashi preferred more modern writers, and had a taste for translated literature. Kita never considered himself much of a reader, generally favouring light novels over books like 1Q84. He finds himself enjoying the novel nonetheless, and ends up in a discussion with Akashi about life and choices, about taming and being tamed. He’s not entirely sure if Akashi gave him the novel as a gentle poke at his school’s name and reputation in reference to foxes, but he supposes it’s not an inaccurate description of them.

A fountain pen. A gift for graduation, well-made and expensive.


It is an unexpected gift, given later when they are both free enough to meet up. University is different from high school, but Kita is taking to it well. He’s forgotten what it’s like not to be a leader, someone constantly in charge. University is a change, and he is responsible for no one but himself. Akashi remarks that university seems to suit him well, and all Kita has to offer is a smile and a slight shrug. When he tries to refuse the gift, Akashi simply insists.  _After all, you only graduate high school once._  Kita accepts it in the end, and admires it later in the privacy of his dorm. It is too much a gift for something mentioned in passing, but he is also pleasantly surprised that Akashi remembered.

A letter. Half-written and crossed out in many places.


He’s not sure if it is a confession or it is not, simply that he has thoughts in his head that he needs to clear. Only that he thinks Akashi has become an important friend to him, and he believes that Akashi thinks the same. Kita is content to wait for the right moment, the right time for this, to let it grow on its own. But he also has to wonder at timing, at chance, at fate. If he had not taken the jacket, if Akashi had not left it, or had come back for it just a bit earlier. If they had made that last point, if he’d let Yuuto take his bag instead. So many  _if_ s and  _almost_ s, but this is the one they have.  
  
It is not a bad one to have, he decides.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments appreciated!
> 
> You can find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/ewagan)!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [a jacket, returned](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11958348) by [cirrus (themorninglark)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/themorninglark/pseuds/cirrus)




End file.
